Eat Lose Winhttp://eatlosewin.com
Celebrating food that looks after health, weight AND the tastebuds!Mon, 27 Jul 2015 20:43:33 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4Banana and coconut cake – gluten freehttp://eatlosewin.com/2015/07/banana-and-coconut-cake-gluten-free/
http://eatlosewin.com/2015/07/banana-and-coconut-cake-gluten-free/#commentsMon, 27 Jul 2015 20:43:33 +0000Bronwen Kinghttp://eatlosewin.com/?p=1049Continue reading →]]>My husband wanted a gluten free banana cake for his birthday so I did what I normally do and looked to Mr Google for inspiration! And then I did what I usually do next, amalgamated interesting ideas I found into something that would work for me and my ingredients. The result was so delicious I want to share it. It looked beautiful too, with the cooked bananas and walnuts on top. I will definitely do this one again!

Steps
1. Preheat oven to 165C. Lightly oil a 20cm springform cake tin.
2. Mash 3 of the bananas and blend with all ingredients except lemon juice and baking soda – use a food processor or a stick blender. When mixture is smooth and creamy blend in lemon juice and sieved baking soda. Pour into cake tin.
3. Cut the remaining bananas lengthwise and press gently in to the batter. Top with walnuts and then put into the oven. Cook for around 50 – 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Pour maple syrup over hot surface and leave for around 10 minutes before removing from tin. Serve with Greek yoghurt.

]]>http://eatlosewin.com/2015/07/banana-and-coconut-cake-gluten-free/feed/0Foods not nutrientshttp://eatlosewin.com/2015/07/foods-not-nutrients/
http://eatlosewin.com/2015/07/foods-not-nutrients/#commentsThu, 23 Jul 2015 23:32:12 +0000Bronwen Kinghttp://eatlosewin.com/?p=1047Continue reading →]]>Are you more confused than ever as to what we “should” be eating for health and for weight loss??? The fat versus carbs debate is getting tiresome and it does not help that even experts seem to disagree what we should eat for optimum health. When I start to feel bewildered I remind myself to stay grounded, and the best way to do this (in my view) is to consider foods not nutrients.

This means promoting foods and diets that look after health and weight and advising against those that don’t. For example, we should promote fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, fish etc. while advising restraint on processed, take-away and convenience foods such as chips, crisps, soft drinks and fried chicken. Blanket statements like “avoid carbs” or “cut back on fat” are misleading; after all, some of the most nutritious foods are high in carbs, (think lentils, chickpeas and whole grains), while others are high in fat (avocadoes, nuts, seeds, oily fish and olives). Similarly, there are healthy diets that are high in fat (the Mediterranean diet) while others like the veganism are very low in fat. Eskimos have lived healthy lives on high fat diets while the people from Okinawa in Japan have led long and healthy lives on diets high in carbs. Focusing on fat or any other nutrient does not lead reliably to an appropriate balance of nutrients; rather we should look at the total diet and how it meets the needs of the people consuming it.
When feeling overwhelmed with the enormous diversity of nutrition opinion I find it helps to think of the wise words spoken by Michael Pollan – author of many fantastic books on food and nutrition. He summarises good nutrition in just 7 words – EAT FOOD, MOSTLY PLANT, NOT TOO MUCH. By “food” he means real food, not processed or “fake” foods and the “not too much” emphasises the importance of portion control. Another piece of advice I hang on to is “never eat that which your grandmother would not recognise” although now that many of us are in the “grand” category, perhaps it should be great grandmother!

]]>http://eatlosewin.com/2015/07/foods-not-nutrients/feed/0Delicious crackershttp://eatlosewin.com/2014/11/delicious-crackers/
http://eatlosewin.com/2014/11/delicious-crackers/#commentsSun, 16 Nov 2014 00:33:40 +0000Bronwen Kinghttp://eatlosewin.com/?p=1037Continue reading →]]>I tried to come up with a clever name for these crackers, but the only word that kept coming to mind was “delicious”! They truly are delicious - with cheese, hummus, cottage cheese, tomato, in fact with anything that you would normally put on a cracker. Better still, they are delicious by themselves!
Those of you who are gluten free will know how hard it is to find good, crunchy, high fibre crackers – well these fit the bill perfectly. The recipe is an adaptation of a recipe given to me by a friend – her recipe used wholemeal flour (220g) instead of the 3 gluten free flours + psyllium that I used. The recipe makes a large container full – good to have ready to go in the pantry. If they soften simply dry off in the oven.

Ingredients
220g gluten free flours (I used a mixture of chick pea, brown rice and buckwheat flours)
220g wholegrain oats
1/4 cup psyllium
75g sunflower seeds
75g sesame seeds
75g pumpkin seeds
40g linseeds
2 teaspoons salt
600ml warm water
1 tablespoon olive oilSteps
1. Preheat oven to 130oC. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl and add water and oil. Mix well – mixture has a porridge like consistency
2. Oil a couple of oven trays and divide mixture between them. Using a sheet of glad wrap between the mixture and your fingers, press mixture out to a thin layer over each tray. Bake for 15 minutes
3. Remove from oven, leave to cool for a minute or so then cut into cracker sized pieces. Put these back on the try then into the oven. Reduce temperature to 120oC and bake for 1-2 hours until they are totally dry and slightly golden. Cool on a rack before transferring to an air tight container.NOTE
Herbs or spices give additional flavour. 1/2 teaspoon of chilli flakes or a teaspoon of Italian herbs add a delicious twist.

]]>http://eatlosewin.com/2014/11/delicious-crackers/feed/0Killing us softly – with food!http://eatlosewin.com/2014/08/killing-us-softly-with-food/
http://eatlosewin.com/2014/08/killing-us-softly-with-food/#commentsFri, 22 Aug 2014 23:04:53 +0000Bronwen Kinghttp://eatlosewin.com/?p=1026Continue reading →]]>If I were to ask you what is the main driver of your food choice, my bet is it would be TASTE. Even within budget constraints, our taste buds win when it comes to food choice – whether foods look after health and weight is barely a consideration. For most of us, the true purpose of eating and the reasons we eat are poles apart.

The true purpose of eating is to get the fuel and essential nutrients we need to reproduce and survive as a species. Our genes have us well set up with the biochemistry and physiology to drive and manage the way we eat and this has served us well until recent times. This “homeostatic control system” promotes hunger, signals fullness and maintains blood sugar levels even through times of famine. An ability to store fat (an on-board pantry) is fundamental to this system as it provides the “buffer” energy source to enable a constant blood sugar on those days “between kills”. Small weight losses and gains are normal, but hormones such as leptin, grehlin and insulin fight large losses in order to maintain the status quo. This clever and wonderful system is now being challenged.

Until about 100 years ago (a nano second in the scale of man’s existence on earth) very few people had choice around food. Eating was about what was available, and what was available was limited – processed food did not exist except in very basic forms like cheese. Modern technology means we now have food at our finger tips and in more enticing combinations and designs than our forefathers could ever have imagined. Food manufacturers wanting market share appeal to our taste buds and eventually capture and corrupt these through the layers of fat, sugar and salt they add. We become slaves to taste sometimes to the point of food addiction. Foods high in sugar, salt and fat lock in to the pleasure seeking part of our brain which then drives us to eat more of them. The “hedonistic brain” starts to override the homeostatic control system. We become resistant to homeostatic hormones and the fine balance between appetite, satiety, blood sugar, and body fat falls in a heap. Obesity and the lifestyle diseases it promotes herald the beginning of the dying process; sadly, many young people are already on this track!

Most of the animals we care for (pets and farm animals) stay healthy and well. We know that what we feed them is critical to their wellbeing so we follow expert advice. Given choice however, a different story would emerge – animals like us, would follow their desires rather than their physiological needs. I have seen pet sheep go mad over chocolate cake and fairy bread (leftovers from birthday parties ) Given a choice, grass came a poor second. It is because animals have no choice and because we pay heed to the experts, that they stay healthy and well.

Choice is a wonderful thing and something modern day society holds sacred; unfortunately when it comes to food, it is also a reason for our demise. We are so hard wired to follow our desires that all the knowledge in the world about what we “should be eating” is pushed aside. And given that our environments are awash with tempting but unhealthy foods we have a “perfect storm” of conditions promoting ill health and weight gain.

Our current government believes food choice is personal responsibility. While this is ultimately true, it is difficult to make healthy food choices when unhealthy food is abundant, available, affordable and the norm. Putting the responsibility on the individual is unfair and unjust in such environments. We need a whole of society approach and a gutsy government to take on the challenge. Things like controls over marketing to children, taxes on soft drinks, healthy policy in schools and workplaces will all contribute to a culture where it is easy and affordable to take personal responsibility for health.

Thepath to food corruption……

Icecream manufacturers and sellers compete for your tastebuds through layers of chocolate, caramel, fudge, biscuits, chocolate chips etc. The icecream in a cone (a treat when I was young) could seem a poor alternative!